Another one bites the dust

Panrix goes into liquidation, again

PC Advisor contacted Panrix's accountancy firm Wilson Pitts to confirm this but they declined to comment at this time.

But their apparent demise has already affected one of our readers, Bob Dean, who is still waiting for his Panrix computer, which was due to be delivered on 28 May.

Mr Dean had tried to defer payment for his PC until the delivery date, but was told he must pay straight away – a sharp, if relatively common practice in the PC industry. Mesh is another manufacturer that takes payment for systems soon after they ordered, rather than on delivery.

When the delivery date came and went with no sign of his PC, Mr Dean tried to contact Panrix. But his calls went unanswered and when he checked the Panrix website he found it had been taken offline.

But that doesn't mean he got his money back, as his credit card statement showed that the full amount had been debited by a company called Top PC.

When we tried to track down Top PC we found that the company is registered at an address in the same road in Leeds as Panrix's offices.

We're not sure if this means Panrix is about to do another phoenix from the flames act, like it did back in 2001, but we're not holding our breath. When we called Top PC, we found that a similar address was not all it had in common with Panrix — it also won't answer its phones. So it looks like Mr Dean will be shopping for his PC elsewhere, once he's got his money back from his credit card company.